I also sent BenQ a note way back in June, asking them when the 1640 would be available in the USA.

They said at the end of JUNE. I'm not sure, but I think they are running a little bit late!

The BenQ 1640 will be my first DVD Writer and I'm holding out for it!

Randy.

This will b my first DVD burner too. And I plan to backup my DVD collection.

Question: Is the Taiyo Yuden media the best think for it. I remember seeing a scale of DVD media from best to wort for DVD drives in general.

Taiyo Yuden media is best for most DVD burners... but the 1640 definitely likes good quality media like Taiyo Yuden. As you can see from my scan, the 1640 writes Taiyo Yuden media pretty good... ive seen MANY scans of Taiyo Yuden media with the 1640 and all of them are very similar to my scan.

Well several people in the US have now found the 1640 at Circuit City for 80 outright so if you dont want to wait and your here and have a store close might be worth a look. Unfortunately my drive didn't show up today and the family put of s trip to the Zoo whilest I waited for it to show up. Tomorrow we all wanna hit the coast :) vacation time, so I'll probably miss it unless we woose out. Can't hardly wait Might have to go to the post next day and retrieve it.

The Circuit City's I have been to (7) cities, none have it. This drive has not been released to the Retailers in the USA so far (this was from an email from BenQ). You can easily find the Plextor 740A though.

I just got the 1640 I ordered from http://www.ncix.com. Talk about awesome. Rips DVD's like a Plextor, but only hits the wallet like a Benq. Total cost was $57, including shipping from Canada to Delaware.

Well, Circuit City has them, but they aren't on the shelves where I live. I just picked one up by CALLING first, for 69.00 USD. They were NOT on the shelf, I looked, the guy said they just came in and were so "cheap" that nobody wanted one... LMAO! Anyway..... CALL Circuit City in the USA where you live and see if they have one like mine did.